Pie & Mighty, Pakenham, Melbourne

Surprise pie breakfast from Pie & Mighty (24 Lakeside Blvd, Pakenham, Melbourne, tel : +61 3 5940 5588)

I have yet to master the runes emblazoned on these pies.

Perhaps someday I will.

Spicy Mexican - has some nice heat from the chili inside. There's beans, sour cream and cheese in it. I think the sour cream did it for me. Nice.

Chunky Beef's pretty decent. Meat's relatively tender. I think I like the plain beef one from Country Cob Bakery a little bit more though.

This one as goat's cheese, mushroom and beef. I liked it mostly for the flavour that goat's cheese brought to it.

Beef Vindaloo's not bad tasting with the tangy heat from their vindaloo gravy.

Couldn't tell the difference between this vanilla slice and the one from Country Cob Bakery.

Not bad apple and rhubarb crumble. The tart was stuffed. Wasn't as sweet as I thought might have been as well.

As a whole I had the impression that Pie & Mighty seemed to be of better quality than the other pie shops we've tried so far, keeping in mind that we're new to Aussie pies.

Pie Face, Cranbourne North, Melbourne

We were in the vicinity and saw Pie Face (1585 Thompsons Road, Cranbourne North, Melbourne). Bought one of their beef and cheese pies to try. These guys were once upon a time darlings of the pie brands here from what I gathered. There has been some criticism over the quality of their pies in the past years but we didn't know any better because this was our first time getting one.

Quite buttery crust and and chunkier meat than the beef pie from Country Cob Bakery. Didn't taste bad.

Country Cob Bakery, Springvale, Melbourne

One of the things we've been looking forward to this trip was pies. After some "research", I had to concede that the options were overwhelming. Country Cob Bakery (890-892 Princes Highway, Springvale, Melbourne) looked like a good shop as any for a newbie because...... 

......it's home of Australia's best pie? 😂 Even the options here was overwhelming.

We settled on a few. They all looked mostly the same on the outside with that buttery brown pastry shell.

Curry scallop pie's not bad. The curry appeared to have a lot of green peas in them and was a little coconut-y. Not as much scallops in it as I thought but I'm not complaining.

The Malaysian prawn pie tasted like an creamy and less spicy version of laksa. Most people back home will never identify this as laksa. It tasted like laksa rempah. Just not exactly laksa. And no laksa leaves. Not bad. Chunky prawns in there.

My favourite was their plain beef pie which had a intensely flavoured, creamy and velvety filling of beef gravy. There's small bits of beef in that delicious gravy and I liked it. 👍🏼

Vanilla slice - or what I also discovered was named "snot block". Our first snot block. The layer inside between the pastry tasted custardy like how I imagined it.

Lune Croissanterie, Fitzroy, Melbourne

Came across Lune Croissanterie and their hype engine which included the founder Kate Reid, a former Formula One aerodynamicist who pivoted to baking and now uses her background to bring technical precision to the world of pastry.

From what we gathered, every croissant takes three days to make through meticulous dough-folding, resting, and temperature control inside a futuristic glass cube kitchen. 

You already know you're never ever going to discern all of that effort in the pastry.

We skipped the shop in the CBD under advisement and visited the larger shop at Fitzroy (19 Rose Street, Fitzroy, Melbourne).

Sparkling water is....free. As much as you want. 😬

That's the "Almond" - frangipane filled with a ridge of toasted almond slices. It's okay-ish. I prefer the rendition of croissant aux amandes from The Stamford Brasserie which I thought was more expressive with the frangipane. 

Kouign amann also okay. Buttery, sweet and almost like a croissant. I don't understand their intricacies enough to comment further but I do feel that the bak kwa version from Tiong Bahru Bakery has more character in its flavour. I am aware it's not a fair comparison.

Their morning bun's like another croissant with sugar and cinnamon. Not bad.

Coffee's pretty decent. Aromatic and adequately intensity from the roast.

We packed a croissant back to try because these were apparently the thing that Lune is known for. It's okay. Pretty sure I didn't taste all the engineering that went into it.

That being said, I didn't dislike anything we had from Lune. I wouldn't mind coming back for more pastries if I didn't have to wait in line for it.

The Cevapi Project, Dhanga Djeembana Walk, Melbourne CBD

First meal after touchdown in Melbourne. We came across The Cevapi Project (Dhanga Djeembana Walk, Melbourne) online and since they were open early, we made breakfast. While these guys are have the tendency to be mentioned in the same breath as Queen Victoria Market. They're not in the market. They're across the road from the market.

We wanted some of their origigi which was basically cevapi served with somun (their variation of flatbread) and chopped onions. Came across some off menu freshly baked borek so we got those as well.

Really flavourful smoke-y and salty cevapi (those beef sausages if you still haven't caught on) which one could pinch with the somun and chase with those onions to cut through the richness. 👍🏼 

Beef borek. Fresh out of the oven with the moist bits of minced meat in flaky pastry. Nice.

The cheese borek had stuffings that might have been something like salted cottage cheese. I'm not sure but it could have been a mixture of cheeses which included feta as well. Also delicious.

Prata tsunami from RK Eating House

I remember eating from RK Eating House many years back and blacklisting them. Didn't have a good experience then. This was a prata tsunami which we had recently. 😬 It's one of those numerous banjir rendition with soft boiled egg, curry mutton and chicken tikka doused with dal, curry and sambal.

Chicken tikka's not smokey. But otherwise, it kinda tasted like how I imagined it. Didn't dislike it but I don't think I'll be getting it again.

More breakfasting at Jom Makan: Prata Saga Sambal Berlada

Seems like the menu at Jom Makan: Prata Saga Sambal Berlada  (一, 二, 三, 四, 五, 六, 七, 八) is evolving. There's a bunch of new stuff I haven't seen before up there.

Behold their chocolate prata. Just chocolate sauce in it I guess.

With their muttony dalcha...not weird at all. 😏 Lamb and chocolate have been a proven thing. 😬

Double egg banjir with some jiggly chunks of lamb fat from the dalcha and sambal. Ini bagus.

One week later......

Strawberry prata - with strawberry syrup like any other strawberry prata. Barely discernible strawberry flavour from it beyond some sweetness.